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HomeWorldAmerican special operation veterans rescue 630 Afghan allies in Operation 'Pineapple Express'

American special operation veterans rescue 630 Afghan allies in Operation ‘Pineapple Express’

Working under the cover of the night, the US team rescued 500 Afghan special operators, assets & enablers & their families, seconds before Kabul airport blast. This is in addition to 130 recued before.

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New Delhi: Seconds before the devastating bomb blast at the Kabul airport Thursday, about 500 Afghans – members of Afghan elite forces, special operators, assets and enablers along with their families – were rescued by an all-volunteer group of American veterans of Afghan War in an operation named ‘Pineapple Express’.

According to news reports with the increasing Taliban presence and violence in Afghanistan American veterans launched a ‘final daring’ mission Wednesday to rescue the allies who had worked with them in the past.

The ABC News reported that the special group of veterans operated under the cover of darkness. It read, “Moving after nightfall in near-pitch black darkness and extremely dangerous conditions, the group said it worked unofficially in tandem with the United States military and U.S. embassy to move people, sometimes one person at a time, or in pairs, but rarely more than a small bunch, inside the wire of the U.S. military-controlled side of Hamid Karzai International Airport.”

The ‘Task Force Pineapple’ comprised of American veterans and included ad hoc groups of current and former U.S. special operators, aid workers, intelligence officers and others with experience in Afghanistan.

Also, according to the ABC story, in addition to these 500, 130 other Afghan nationals were also rescued and shepherded into the Kabul International Airport over a 10-day period.

Lieutenant Colonel Scott Mann, a retired Green Beret commander who headed the rescue operation told ABC News, “Dozens of high-risk individuals, families with small children, orphans, and pregnant women, were secretly moved through the streets of Kabul throughout the night and up to just seconds before ISIS detonated a bomb into the huddled mass of Afghans seeking safety and freedom.”


Also read: From Mazar to Kabul, I saw Afghanistan fall to Taliban in 10 days


Password ‘Pineapples’

The teams coordinated the rescue operation through an encrypted chat and rescued those passengers who were able to identify themselves with an image of “yellow Pineapples with a pink background” on their smartphones.

Reports said that these Afghans had helped the US government in their fight against the Taliban. Several of these Afghans had been receiving death threats from the Taliban since they took control of the country on 15 August.

While the operation was underway the twin blasts at Kabul airport left several of these personnel injured. At least 13 US servicemen including 10 U.S. Marines, a Navy corpsman, an Army soldier and another service member were killed and another 15 injured.

NBC News reported that the mission of the informal group, known as “Task Force Pineapple”, began as a frantic effort on 15 August to get one former Afghan commando who had served with Mann into the Kabul airport as he was being hunted by the Taliban who were texting him death threats.


Also read: Escape from Kabul: How I negotiated with Taliban to make it to the safety of Indian embassy


 

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